Warwickshire: The Land of Shakespeare

by Clive Holland

The capital of several of these monarchs was Tamworth; which anciently enjoyed the distinction of standing in both Staffordshire and Warwick, concerning which the Saxon Chronicle of 913 records, “This year, by the help of God, Æthelflæd, lady of the Mercians, went with all the Mercians to Tamworth, and there builded a burgh early in the summer.” In those times Kingsbury, on the Tame, was also a place of importance as a royal residence, and, according to Dugdale, the farmhouse, formerly the Hall, stands on the spot where stood the palace of the Mercian kings. Tamworth was destined to play its part in one of those fierce and lurid conflicts between the Saxons and the Danish invaders which took place after the town had been burned by the latter. Near by, too, in A.D. 757, another battle took place between Ethelbald, the tenth king of Mercia, and Cuthred, King of the West Saxons, when the former was slain by one of his own followers. At Seckington, about five miles to the north–east of Tamworth, is a tumulus, which not only marks the site of the battle, but also the burial–place of those who fell.

In the latter half of the eighth century Offa, who ultimately became the greatest ruler of the West of those times, raised the kingdom of Mercia to a height of greatness and prosperity that it had never before enjoyed,—an importance which it continued to hold for a period under the rule of his son Cenwulf. Warwickshire, as a part of Mercia, must naturally have benefited by its greatness and progress, but during the reign of Cenwulf the seeds of a far–reaching revolution were being sown, the fruits of which were the uniting of the kingdoms of Wessex and Mercia by Ecgberht or Egbert, King of the West Saxons, who has been sometimes incorrectly described as the first king of England.

The incursions of the Danish invaders, which had been of frequent occurrence prior to the reign of Egbert, assumed a much more formidable aspect almost ere the King had succeeded in welding together the separate kingdoms under one head. Their first unwelcome visitations had begun in 787, some thirteen years before Egbert’s accession.

In 868 they once again invaded and seriously ravaged Mercia. Two years later they conquered East Anglia. A year later their triumphant progress extended into Wessex, where they at first achieved some successes, although that kingdom was ruled by a wise and heroic ruler in the person of Æthelred, the brother of Alfred the Great, who succeeded him. In the following year, 871, no less than nine pitched battles were fought between the Danes and the Saxons.

It is supposed that Mercia about this time was only a portion of the kingdom of Burhred, the last native king of central England, who had succeeded Ceolwulf. This in 874 had been divided by the victorious Danes, and committed as a tributary state to Ceolwulf. Be this as it may, the whole of Warwickshire, there is little reason to doubt, came into the hands of Alfred the Great by the Treaty of Wedmore in 878, made between him and Guthrun the Danish leader, and was ultimately formed by him into a duchy under his daughter Æthelflæd and her husband Æthelred.

The effects of the Danish settlement were important on the future history of the kingdom, for it was that of a new people with different customs, modes of life, and traditions. How far–reaching the occupation was can be traced in local nomenclature, and the counties which were anciently West Saxon still retain the names and boundaries of the divisions founded by the successors of Cerdic. Mercia, in contradistinction to the local divisions of Wessex, which were evolved naturally, was apparently mapped out, and the extent of the Danish settlement of the county of Warwick may be traced from the fact that Rugby is the southernmost town possessing the Danish affix by, whilst there are a considerable number of places so distinguished in the more northern part of the county.

In the several massacres of the Danes which took place during the period comprised by the last few years of the tenth and first years of the eleventh centuries, the part played by Mercia, and, as a consequence, by the district afterwards to be known as Warwickshire, was considerable. The ultimate vengeance for these massacres, which was taken by Swend in 1013, was shared by the Mercians as well as by the other inhabitants of East Anglia and central England. And the coming of Canute three years later was destined to have a far–reaching effect upon the history of the district, and of England generally.

Arriving with his army and Eadric, the Saxon Earldorman, who had betrayed his fellow–countrymen previously, and had, so the Chronicles state, fled from England to escape their vengeance, Canute crossed the Thames at Cricklade and entered and ravaged Mercia, proceeding into Warwickshire during mid–winter’s tide, where the Danes ravaged and burned and slew all that they could come across. Afterwards Canute and his forces besieged London. “But,” says the Chronicler, “Almighty God saved it.” Failing to capture the city, the Danes once more returned into Mercia, and carried fire and sword into its vales and woodlands, slaying and burning whatever they overran.

On the death of Æthelred the Unready two years later, in 1016, Canute was chosen king at Southampton, and Edmund, surnamed Ironside, in London. The latter’s reign was short but glorious; several battles were fought with the Danes and victories won, in consequence of which Canute agreed to a division of the kingdom between Edmund and himself. In this division Canute took Mercia and Northumbria, and Edmund the rest of England. In a few months the latter died in London, and Canute became by common consent King of England.